Yang Ruoning stared intently at Qingye, who sat beside her on the floor. She had been watching him for a while. Qingye turned his head with a frown. "Why are you acting so strange today? Have you suddenly fallen for my charm?"
Yang Ruoning flicked his forehead. "Don't be so impudent."
After returning to this world from the Black Hole, she had traveled day and night to see Qingye. She rode her mountain bike all night along empty, dark official roads, arriving at Youzhou City at dawn. She hid her bicycle and some firearms in a wilderness near Youzhou City before entering the city and heading to the dock. After paying the boatman generously, she boarded a ship to Bianliang and then went straight to the imperial palace.
She did not return to her manor. She did not tell Luo Yuan that she was back. To Luo Yuan, it had been several months since he last saw Yang Ruoning. But to Yang Ruoning, it had only been a few days.
She felt she hadn't sorted out her emotions enough to see him.
And now, she and Qingye sat in the silent, deserted ancestral hall late at night. A projector played a video on the white wall. It was her fifteenth birthday party. Her father had recorded it.
Yang Ruoning couldn't remember how long it had been since she last watched these family videos. She dared not, because every rewatch was followed by a period of severe alcoholism.
Yang Ruoning turned her head, gazing at the portraits of the Emperors of Da Song hanging in order in the ancestral hall. She said to Qingye, "They are not your ancestors, Qingye."
"I know."
Yang Ruoning turned her head, looking at him with some surprise. "I mean, you..."
Qingye interrupted her. "They are not my blood relatives."
"When... when did you find out?" Yang Ruoning asked.
"I only suspected it before," Qingye continued to stare at the projection on the wall, unblinking. "I thought I knew that person. In Mother's Buddhist scriptures, there was a picture, and that picture was like the shadow on the wall, as if it had frozen a person in a small frame. I didn't know what it was called then, and I thought the picture was magical, so I secretly took it to examine it carefully. So I clearly remember the person in the picture, it was him." He pointed at Jason in the video.
"He is my younger brother, Jason, Yang Ruoxuan."
"I asked Mother once, who was the man in the Buddhist scriptures. Mother only said he was a man she admired before entering the palace. But I know Mother was not telling the truth." As he spoke, Qingye turned to look at Yang Ruoning. "Yang Ruoning, you disappeared for several months and then suddenly came to the palace to see me, not just to show me your family, right?"
Yang Ruoning shook her head. "No, of course not. I came here to see my family."
"He is my father, isn't he?" Qingye asked.
"Yes, he is your father," Yang Ruoning said, pointing at the image on the wall. "This is your grandmother, and the person speaking is your grandfather. He was recording, so he didn't appear in the frame just now. Look, he's appearing now, the one waving is him. This is me, oh, the boy next to me was my boyfriend at the time. This little boy on the far right is..."
"...is my father," Qingye said, standing up. He walked closer, extending his right hand as if to touch the person in the image.
"When he was in middle school, he formed a band in our garage called Greenfield. The Chinese name is Qingye. That band was his dream. And now, you are his dream."
"He's... gone, isn't he?" Qingye asked.
"To you, he probably passed away more than ten years ago," Yang Ruoning replied.
"How did he die?" Qingye asked again. He didn't turn around, maintaining his posture, staring fixedly at the person in the video.
"He was injured when he returned and died of poisoning..." Yang Ruoning replied.
"Who harmed him?" Qingye turned his head and asked.
Yang Ruoning stood up and walked closer to him. "Listen, I'm here because you are my family. Jason entrusted you to me before he left. Revenge was never what Jason wanted. Your father wanted you to be safe."
Tears welled up in Qingye's eyes. "I thought he left because of me..."
"He loved you very, very much, and he was very, very sorry that he couldn't be by your side," Yang Ruoning smiled slightly, then opened her arms. "Come here, come here, let me teach you the Yang family's ancestral elixirs."
"Elixirs?" Qingye looked at her outstretched arms, a puzzled expression on his face.
Yang Ruoning stepped forward and gave him a big hug. She said, "Your grandmother always did this when we were sad. She said hugs were the most effective placebo. How is it? Do you feel any better?"
Qingye rested his chin on Yang Ruoning's shoulder, obedient like a child. He said, "I feel much better."
Qingye's build was very much like Jason's. Jason was naturally slender and delicate, with pale skin. Among the tall and robust white students, he appeared frail and sickly. After entering adolescence, Jason began to pay extra attention to his thin physique. Weightlifting, muscle building, even prohibited substances, he had tinkered with them in private.
Yang Ruoning gently patted Qingye's back, thinking of the slender young boy from years ago, the child who would come to his sister when he was wronged. She felt a pang of emotion.
She asked Qingye, "Are you willing to go back with me?"
"Give up the throne?" He straightened up, looking at Yang Ruoning.
"Mm."
Qingye stared at her, silent. The light from the projector cast mottled shadows on his face.
Yang Ruoning sighed. "This throne was never meant for you... it has its destined owner. Besides, I don't think you're happy here."
"Hmph, the destined owner?" Qingye let out a cold laugh. "Perhaps no one is more suitable than me?"
A hint of foreboding crossed Yang Ruoning's mind. "Why do you say that?"
"I realize now that I am the true chosen one, a descendant of 'immortals' from another world," Qingye said, pointing at the projection on the wall.
"Qingye! Our society is just a bit ahead of this world's. We are all ordinary people," Yang Ruoning quickly explained. The glint in Qingye's eyes made her feel a little scared.
"Yang Ruoning, everything you've shown me appears like divine magic to this world. No one would question it."
"So? You're going to show these things to the world, telling everyone you are a descendant of 'immortals'?"
"Why not? This throne is mine!"
"Why?!" Yang Ruoning shouted anxiously. She didn't understand why he was being so stubborn.
"My mother, my subjects are here, my dreams are here. How can I abandon them all?!" As he was leaving, Qingye turned to Yang Ruoning and said, "Thank you for telling me about my origins... and thank you for reminding me that someone is coveting the throne."
His stubbornness was also very much like Jason's. "Qingye!" Yang Ruoning wanted to call him back, but by the time she rushed out, Qingye was already far away.